As an individual artist, you are often able to directly apply for grants from government arts agencies, private foundations and a variety of nonprofit organizations. This class is for anyone interested in improving his or her chances of receiving funding and takes you through every stage of successful grant writing.

The workshop is taught by three local experts: Mary Navarro, Fundraising Consultant and Adjunct Faculty Member at Carnegie Mellon University; Renee Piechocki, Artist and Director of Pittsburgh's Office of Public Art; and Ellen Fleurov, Executive Director, Silver Eye Center for Photography.

They will focus on planning, researching, and crafting letters of inquiry to potential funders; writing narratives; and budgeting, packaging and submitting your proposal. The class also covers why and how grants are made to individuals; how to tailor your proposal to a specific source; and funding opportunities for photographers and visual artists.

Mary Navarro has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, working as a grantmaker for The Heinz Endowments as well as a fundraiser, project manager, teacher and consultant. Mary develops strategy, manages projects, and provides training and technical assistance for a range of clients, including the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Heinz Endowments, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Point Park University and the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Liveable Communities. She is an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Master of Arts Management program at Carnegie Mellon University, where she focuses on funding for the arts.

Renee Piechocki is an artist as well as the Director of Pittsburgh's Office of Public Art, a partnership of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and the Department of City Planning. As a member of the collaborative Two Girls Working (along with Tiffany Ludwig), she created the public art installation Trappings: Stories of Women, Power, and Clothing, which has been touring worldwide. The project was published by Rutgers University Press in 2007. It is currently on view at the Portland International Airport gallery.

Ellen Fleurov is the Executive Director of the Silver Eye Center for Photography. A successful grant writer for museums and other arts venues, she has also served as a grant panelist and site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, United States Information Agency, Southern Arts Federation, Georgia Council on the Arts, South Carolina Arts Commission, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Flintridge Foundation, Pasadena, CA.

Click here to register and to view more Bigger Picture workshops being offered.

Become a member of Silver Eye today and enjoy discounts on course fees, plus other exclusive benefits.

Full and partial tuition assistance is available to eligible students. Click here to download the scholarship eligibility requirements and form. The Bigger Picture is made possible in part through a Seed Award from The Sprout Fund and the support of The Fine Foundation and Epson America, Inc.

Questions? Contact Aaron Blum, Silver Eye's Education Coordinator at 412.431.1810, ext. 11 or by e-mail at education@silvereye.org. Aaron is available for consultation on which courses to select and to answer any other questions you may have.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Longtime Pittsburgh modern and dance theater company Dance Alloy Theater and the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty have each established reputations as amalgamators of talents and artistic visions. They may be combining some of these visions in the future with the announcement Tuesday that the arts hubs are exploring a possible merger.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Steel Valley Arts Council will debut local artist Sam Foreman during the month of June. The show, entitled “Dialogue”, is an exhibition of his most recent work consisting of glass and paintings. Foreman was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he attended Mt. Lebanon High School. Inspired by his teacher Mike Carlin, an accomplished glass artist, Foreman began to find his passion for art. Foreman graduated from Lycoming College in 2010 where he received a Bachelors of Fine Arts. He hopes to continue his education to receive a teaching certificate so that he may one day teach art. At Lycoming, he experimented in the different studios which offered painting, drawing, digital art, black and white photography, printmaking, pottery and sculpture.

Upon returning home from college, Foreman desired to work with the one medium he had yet to experiment with, glass. Over the last six months, he has studied glass blowing at the Pittsburgh Glass Center and also currently has a piece on display in their show “10x10x10”, which features 200 other accomplished glass artists. “Dialogue” at Artspace 105 opening reception will take place June 4, 2011 from 7-10pm. The show will vary in art from unique glass sculptures to abstract oil paintings; Foreman says, “the paintings I completed months prior began to resemble glass like qualities and began to see the beauty of conversation between the canvas and the surface of the glass”.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Planned as the world's greenest building, the proposed $400 million, 40-story Tower at PNC Plaza to be built at Fifth and Wood Sts. will profoundly impact the continuing revitalization of downtown Pittsburgh.

At around 800,000 square feet, the Tower will serve a rapidly growing PNC exclusively, according to PNC chairman and CEO Jim Rohr. With an aim to exceed the certification for LEED Platinum, it will exemplify PNC's "relentless commitment to green buildings," says Rohr whose company now "has more LEED buildings than any company on earth.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

The Silver Eye Center for Photography announces the opening of Keystone.1, the first Pennsylvania Photography Biennial, featuring sixteen statewide artists working at the forefront of contemporary photography. The exhibition is on view from May 24 to August 27, 2011. A special public reception honoring the artists will take place on Friday evening, June 3 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public.

In planning the inaugural Biennial, Ellen Fleurov, Silver Eye’s Executive Director, invited more than forty art and photography professionals from the state – curators, writers, gallery owners, publishers, teachers and bloggers – to nominate artists they felt were producing innovative and exceptional work. After careful review of these submissions and subsequent studio visits, Fleurov selected the following notable photographers for the Biennial, who range in age from their late 20s to their late 60s and are at various stages in their respective careers.

While regional by virtue of where these photographers live and work, the Biennial’s artists are fully engaged with the global photography community and the plurality of ideas and practices that characterize the medium today. Traditional genres— landscape, still life portraiture, documentary and street photography — are looked at from fresh, challenging perspectives while abstraction, staged narratives and process-oriented work continue to push the boundaries of photographic representation. Subjects range from considerations of perspective, motion, color and form, and examinations of political, scientific and sociological issues, to meditations on race, gender, and generational identities.

As broad as the range of subjects presented, so are the techniques and methodologies utilized by these artists. They include: black-and-white and color photography; analogue and digital-based imagery or hybrids of both; alternative and camera-less processes; work that intersects with drawing, painting, printmaking, performance, time-based media and installation; wide-format panoramas, staged still composites, and images that combine text and computer code.

“This first Biennial, the only exhibition of its kind in the state, builds upon and reaffirms Silver Eye’s three-decade-long commitment to Pennsylvania artists,” says Ellen Fleurov. “From rising photographers whose vision will shape the future of the creative landscape to internationally-known figures such as William Larson and Lydia Panas, this exhibition attests to the extraordinary talent living and working across our state.”

RELATED PROGRAMS

Silver Eye will host monthly conversations with the exhibiting artists, the first on Saturday, June 4 at 11 a.m. These talks are free and open to the public.

Silver Eye Center for Photography is generously supported by our members and individual donors and by the Allegheny Regional Asset District, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Grable Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and Epson America. Broadcast media sponsorship is kindly provided by WYEP/91.3 FM.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

There are 2 worst case scenarios here. One, you haven't registered at the Pittsburgh Artist Registry or two, you registered and did not upload any images of artwork or link to a site with your images. Or you checked all the medium categories and have never ventured into those mediums....

Also, make sure you update your email address if it has changed!

Art consultants, galleries, and organizations etc check the registry. Get it together!

(I'm checking it right now for sculptors for a scuplture walk project.)

WHAT ARTISTS ARE ELIGIBLE TO JOIN THE REGISTRY?

In order to join the registry, artists must be full-time residents of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Mercer, Lawrence, Somerset, Venango, Washington, or Westmoreland counties. Artists of all disciplines and at all career levels, from emerging to professional are welcome.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Join us for a literary celebration of the newly released Pittsburgh Noir (Akashic Books), a collection of works about our city's gritty, criminal, shadow side. Round Corner Cantina will be hosting the festivities with food, drinks and a book signing with editor Kathleen George. Contributors will include Aubrey Hirsh, Nancy Martin, Rebecca Drake, Lila Shaara, Hilary Masters, and Tom Lipinski.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Register Online:

Or call to register 412.394.3353

The Annual Meeting is your opportunity to be a part of the big picture of issues facing the arts and culture community, both regionally and nationally. MEET local artists and arts managers who are using Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council resources to grow their careers and their organizational capacity, CONNECT with your colleagues all at once, and LEARN about GPAC's initiatives that communicate the value of the arts, loud and clear.

As part of this important day, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and the August Wilson Center are pleased to host leading non-profit researcher and management consultant Alan Brown in a keynote address to the Pittsburgh arts community titled Beyond Excellence: Fulfilling the Promise of Civic Creative Vitality. Attendance rates are declining nationally, yet the number of nonprofit arts organizations continues to grow rapidly. As funders begin to think seriously about "supply reduction" strategies, creative expression is flourishing: increasing numbers of young musicians, dancers, actors and artists graduate from our colleges and conservatories, and more and more Americans are following their creative urges on a recreational level. How can artists and arts organizations not just survive but grow even more essential in this time of momentous change? In his keynote address, Alan Brown will tackle the sensitive topics of artistic vibrancy and community relevance, debunk the myth that audience development is marketing problem, and challenge the Pittsburgh arts community to fulfill its collective promise of "civic creative vitality." You don't want to miss this!

Alan is a principal of WolfBrown, where his work focuses on understanding consumer demand for cultural experiences and assisting cultural institutions, foundations and agencies and in gaining the insight and perspectives they need to fulfill their promise.

With over 200 individual artists and arts organizations composed of over 2,700 individuals, GPAC membership represents the diversity of the region's arts and culture sector. Make sure that you and/or your organization are represented on June 8. Email or call ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353 for more information.

Interested in volunteering for the Annual Meeting? Sign up here. Volunteers will receive free admission to the afternoon workshop with Alan Brown.

Click here to learn more about Alan's companion workshop, also on June 8.

Click here to learn about the Mayor's Award for Public Art, which will be announced at the annual meeting.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

PITTSBURGH, PA, 5/19/11 – Shaw Galleries is pleased to announce its summer Blockbuster exhibition: "Forgotten Witness: The Long Lost Photographs of Pittsburgh Press Photographer Alan F. Reiland (1927-96)," opening on Friday, June 3, 2011, in conjunction with the opening of the 2011 Three Rivers Arts Festival, and continuing through July 30.

When Alan F. Reiland (1927-96) passed quietly away at the age of 69 in August of 1996, very few of his Munhall neighbors knew of his talent as a photographer. Reiland, who once bore witnesses to Pittsburgh's first Renaissance, captured much of mid-century Pittsburgh with his camera while working briefly for The Pittsburgh Press as a photographer in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Precious few staff members from that time remain who remember the tall, gangly photographer, let alone his amazing, newsworthy images that capture everything from a water main break in Market Square to the look of anguish on the face of a doting mother as she watches her young daughter, a burn victim, being cared for at Children's Hospital.

Over two dozen of Reiland's original silver gelatin photographs will be presented on their original mounts, as Reiland himself had mounted them for entry in The Press Photographers Association of Greater Pittsburgh's annual competitions, including two Honorable Mention winners - "Cross Eyed" and "A Mother's Anxiety" - with their original award stickers intact.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 3, from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

As part of the AJM's "Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century Is Treading Water" exhibit, Penn Environment and Clean Water Action will be holding an evening session of education on Marcellus Gas Drilling coupled with an interactive training on how to lobby elected leaders. Information will also be available on the Marcellus Lobby Day in Harrisburg, June 7.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Let’s talk about neighborhoods.We have an entire show about the topic courtesy of Curator-in-Residence, Georgina Jackson.

The Neighbo(u)rhood exhibition includes events, installations and video-based works, which present differing points of departure and reflections upon the idea of neighborhood. The (u) in the title refers to a difference of translation, but also an a nod to the role of oneself in the existence of neighborhood.

The show has me thinking about our communities and the way that our actions can contribute to our wellbeing as a whole. Because of this I think that we should start taking care of our global neighborhood by making art. Fundreds of pieces of art…

Participants of this Saturday’s Artlab will be participating in the Fundred Dollar Bill Project. Fundred Dollar Bills are original, hand-drawn versions of U.S. one hundred dollar bills that are being created around the country.

So what happens to these fundreds and fundreds of little pieces of art? They are all going to collection centers (the closest collection center is at one of our favorite places, The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia) and will be delivered – by an armored truck! – to the U.S. Congress. Along with the fundreds will be a request for an even exchange of the creative capital for real funding to make safe lead-polluted soils in New Orleans and beyond.

The Fundred armored truck! One day, your Fundred will be inside.

Please join us from 1:00-4:00pm in the Mattress Factory lobby and help to take care of our neighborhoods!

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

James Grashow’s Corrugated Fountain

709 Penn Gallery - June 3 – July 2, 2011

Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, a program of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, presents the epic sculptural installation Corrugated Fountain by East Coast artist James Grashow at the Trust’s 709 Penn Gallery. James Grashow’s ambitious, large-scale work recalls the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Steeped in classical mythology, the room-sized installation fills 709 penn Gallery with a mammoth sculpture of Neptune, Tritons, rocks, waves, fish and dolphins. As homage to the achievements of classical and baroque artistry, Grashow uses his signature cardboard material to breathe playful new light into old stone. Three years in the making, Corrugated Fountain is James Grashow’s most ambitious work to date.

About James GrashowJames Grashow is a renowned sculptor and woodcut printer. Born in Brooklyn, Grashow studied at the Pratt Institute, where he received his BA and MFA in painting and sculpture. Growing up as son of a light industrialist, Grashow had access to a constant supply of cardboard as a child and discovered early on his facility with this medium. From intricate cardboard and twist-tie birds to the delicate and colorful Houseplant series, in which buildings seem to grow from blossoming wood and paper flowers, the artist’s varied oeuvre is marked by a contagious sense of humor and a longtime fascination with quotidian materials.jamesgrashow.comJames Grashow will conduct workshops in Point Park during Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, June 3 – 5. Visit 3riversartsfest.org for more information.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Update/Correction: This is not an official call for artists, we are looking for willingness to support a sculpture walk along Three Rivers Heritage Trail so if you're a sculptor and are interested in the project please email rick(at)uniquetake.com.

A Sculpture walk along Three Rivers Trail is being developed and we're ideally looking for established artists who have previously created sculptures which they would be willing to place along the trail. The sculptures would be fitted onto existing stone pedestals. Exceptions will be considered as far as it needing to be secured to the pedestals just keep in mind we're talking about a public trail along one of the rivers.

*There are currently no funds to pay artist fees but there will be plenty of promotion once the site has been confirmed and the works are fitted. There will be signs which identify the work and contact info for the artist.

*We will try and secure funding for artist fees but nothing can be guaranteed at this point.

If interested please send and email to rick(AT)uniquetake.com with the following information:

1) High quality images of the sculpture from multiple angles.

2) Materials used, dimensions (especially the bottom of the work), approximate weight, title and price.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Pittsburgh, PA…Carnegie Museum of Art is pleased to announce a $250,000 grant awarded to the museum by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund the development of the exhibition Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story, which will travel to additional venues after debuting in Pittsburgh.

The retrospective was created by Carnegie Museum of Art with help by an advisory committee of African American scholars and educators; this will be the first large-scale exhibition devoted to the works of Harris. During his 40-year career as a staff and freelance photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, the preeminent national black newsweekly, Harris produced nearly 80,000 images documenting daily life in the black communities of Pittsburgh, particularly the Hill District, which was dubbed “the crossroads of the world” during its heyday of the 1940s.

According to NEH advisory panelists who reviewed the proposal, the exhibition will make important contributions to public understanding of “the urban African American experience” and contribute to existing scholarship on black life during and after the Great Migration from the South to the North. Panelists called Harris’s photographs “compelling and beautiful” and stated that the exhibition will showcase the work of an “artist/photographer who captured the richness and complexity of (African American) life.” According to the award letter, the panelists were also impressed by the well-conceived exhibition plan and the strong team of scholars behind the exhibition.

Bridging artistic and humanities disciplines, Teenie Harris: An American Story is one of 216 projects that were awarded a total of $18.8 million in awards and grants by the NEH. According to the NEH, these projects highlight some of the most innovative work happening in the humanities today. A complete list of state-by-state NEH-funded projects can be found online.

An American Story will be on view at the Museum of Art from October 29, 2011, until April 8, 2012, and will showcase Harris’s remarkable body of work. Featuring some 1,000 images, the exhibition will include a large-scale multimedia installation, a chronological display of his greatest photographs, engaging interactive computer stations, an exploration of Harris’s working process and artistry, and a variety of educational resources. The museum is co-publishing with the University of Pittsburgh Press a book to accompany the exhibition.

After its Pittsburgh unveiling, a portion of the Harris retrospective will travel as a smaller-scale exhibition of prints. The first museum to host the exhibition will be the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama, a large interpretive museum and research center focused on documenting the Civil Rights Movement and related struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibition will be on view in Birmingham from August to October 2012.

Next, the exhibition will travel to the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library in Atlanta, Georgia, from January to April 2013. The Woodruff Library serves member institutions of Atlanta University Center Inc., the world’s largest and oldest consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, and Spelman College.

Carnegie Museum of Art is seeking additional venues for 2013 and 2014.

About Charles “Teenie” Harris

Working from the 1930s to the 1970s, Harris trained his camera continuously on Pittsburgh’s Hill District, capturing scenes of everyday life—weddings, funerals, family portraits, parades, church events, street scenes, graduations—as well as the great men and women who visited Pittsburgh, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Robeson, John F. Kennedy, Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jesse Jackson, Lena Horne, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), and Muhammed Ali, among others. Harris’s images recorded some of the country’s finest jazz musicians—Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, and Duke Ellington—whom he photographed alongside bartenders, waitresses, and dancing crowds. He also photographed the two legendary Negro League baseball teams, the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, while showing the determination and dignity of the players.

Similar to playwright August Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle, Harris’s images transcend place to tell the story of African American life in the 20th century. Powerful and personal, they connect today’s viewers with a proud past and a vibrant artistic and cultural heritage.

“Like legendary portrait photographers James VanDerZee and August Sander, Teenie Harris demonstrated an innate artistic ability in the way he composed his images,” said Louise Lippincott, curator of fine arts at Carnegie Museum of Art and organizer of An American Story. “His judicious choice of vantage point, attention to choreography, and acquired knowledge of lighting all come to play in the thousands of pictures he made. Harris had great empathy with his subjects and a talent for storytelling. We hope that through this retrospective and traveling exhibition Harris will be established in the canons of art, history, and photography.”

About the Exhibition

When the exhibition debuts at the Museum of Art’s Heinz Galleries, it will highlight nearly 1,000 of Harris’s most striking and iconic photographs digitally projected as life-size images. The images will be organized into seven sections—“Crossroads,” “Gatherings,” “Urban Landscapes,” “Style,” “At Home,” and “The Rise and Fall of the Crawford Grill”—and synchronized with an original soundtrack by MCG Jazz, under the direction of Marty Ashby.

In the second gallery, a chronological installation of exhibition images will illustrate the role of photographs in preserving a community’s history and memories.The “Artist at Work” section will demonstrate Harris’s technical skill and artistic vision, as well as how newspapers and publishers cropped and edited his work in order to tell a particular story. Furthermore, the show will include interactive components, such as computer stations for accessing a newly developed web-based interactive experience that allows for in-depth explorations of the images. Finally, visitors who access audio guides will hear, firsthand, the stories and memories of Harris’s family, friends, colleagues, and models.

In addition to an exhibition-specific Web site, the museum is collaborating with the University of Pittsburgh Press on an illustrated book offering new and unpublished scholarship about Harris, his work, and his times that promises to impact the fields of American and African American art, culture, and history.

Background: Carnegie Museum of Art and Charles “Teenie” Harris

In 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art purchased Harris’s archive of nearly 80,000 photographic negatives, few of which were titled and dated. Since 2003, the museum has scanned nearly 60,000 images, all of which are available on the online collection database. Through outreach efforts, lectures and special events, and three Teenie Harris Archive Project exhibitions (in 2003, 2006, and 2009), the museum has engaged the people of the region, asking for assistance in identifying the people, places, and events in the images. So far, 2,000 images have been positively identified with help from the community. The Charles “Teenie” Harris online archive can be found at www.cmoa.org/teenie/

Support

In addition to the generous support of The National Endowment for the Humanities, major support for this exhibition was provided by PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., and Richard King Mellon Foundation.Support was also provided by The Heinz Endowments and the Virginia Kaufman Fund.Support for education programming connected to the exhibition was provided by The Grable Foundation.Support for the exhibition soundtrack was provided by BNY Mellon.Other generous support was provided by The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Beal Publication Fund.

Credits

Exhibition design for Teenie Harris: An American Story is by SPRINGBOARD Design and Brett Yasko.

Web site design is by Night Kitchen Interactive.

Carnegie Museum of Art

Located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art was founded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895. One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, it is nationally and internationally recognized for its distinguished collection of American and European works from the 16th century to the present. The Heinz Architectural Center, part of Carnegie Museum of Art, is dedicated to enhancing understanding of the physical environment through its exhibitions, collections, and public programs. For more information about Carnegie Museum of Art, call 412.622.3131 or visit our Web site at www.cmoa.org.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

Encyclopedia Destructica will be having a binding party this Wednesday, May 18th and next Wednesday May 25th at Fleeting Pages!

Have you checked out Fleeting Pages yet? If not, here's your chance! It's an awesome pop-up independent & self-published bookstore in the empty Borders storefront. There is a whole host of activities, workshops, readings happening through the month.

Join us May 18 or 25th 7 pm for binding parties. Weave is also doing a series of writing workshops on Wednesday evenings, so check that out too!

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

The Warhol will open two new exhibitions, Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports and Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project on May 27, 2011. Mixed Signals will be on view through August 7 while Contemporary Magic will be on view through August 15, 2011.

Mixed Signals features works by contemporary artists that probe the stereotype of the American male athlete. This particular theme has become increasingly prevalent during the past several years. The exhibition features such well-known artists as Matthew Barney, Catherine Opie, Collier Schorr, and Sam Taylor-Wood to emerging talents such as Shaun El C. Leonardo and Joe Sola. Mixed Signals demonstrates that the male athlete is a far more ambiguous figure in our collective cultural imagination than ever before. Using elements of wit, sarcasm, and controversy, these artists challenge cultural assumptions that gender is natural or innate. Instead, they emphasize the many ways masculinity is always performed, coded, and socially constructed, perhaps even more so in the spectacular, media-saturated field of sports. Rituals of male bonding typical to various sports are explored as well. Another key theme of this exhibition pertains to the materials, symbols and regalia of sports that signify the prowess of the wearer.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.

...As an artist (of any art form) you submit a proposal for a project for which you'd like to have funding. See instructions on our blog to submit.

As a patron, your $10 donation gives you a delicious meal of soup, salad, and cookies, and a ballot.Artists will present their proposals, and patrons will cast their ballots for the best one. The artist with the most votes takes home the proceeds of the night.

We hope to make this event a regular occurance!Help us make this a success by telling your friends -- and volunteering to help with the event!

Dinner on May 22nd will be accompanied by the brilliant live music of Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous.BYOB! Local beer available by added donation.

Dinner: 6-8pmPresentations: 7-7:30pmVoting: 8pmAward: 8:45pm

Want to know more?Browse the national Sunday Soup site for similar projects around the country: http://sundaysoup.org/

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features selected pittsburgh artists and upcoming exhibits with photos from the artists and galleries. since the major press outlets do not go beyond a directory listing of exhibits, blogs are needed to promote pittsburgh artists and their work. the blog also calls attention to the inferiority complex of pittsburgh art and how it's perpetuated by the major players in town. Started on August 20,2007. pittsburgh area galleries and art venues are listed at the sister site www.PghGalleries.com.